Large service providers today employ a number of service agents to address customer needs such as billing, new services, service cancellations, and technical support, just to mention a few. With respect to billing, often times customers call to dispute charges such as an incorrect charge, a charge for service during outages, over billing, and so on. Many times the resolution for these disputes is routine and simple to resolve. However, because of call volumes, there are instances when service agents cannot serve customers in a timely manner, or are overburdened by routine requests.
A need therefore arises for a method and apparatus to automate billing and crediting of customer accounts.